


Hackers Chasing Hackers

by Go_Beyond



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Hacking, Happy 707 | Choi Luciel, Light Angst, Luciel is a smug little shit, MC is a hacker, Other, Serious 707 | Choi Luciel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:22:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25745041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Go_Beyond/pseuds/Go_Beyond
Summary: MC is a hacker that was tasked with breaking into 707's personal computer and take as much data from it as possible before she gets caught. However, it does not go nearly as well as she had hoped."Why does this psychopath have so many pictures of the same cat?"
Relationships: 707 | Choi Luciel/Main Character
Comments: 4
Kudos: 73





	Hackers Chasing Hackers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kitkatt42](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitkatt42/gifts).



Mc watched as binary numbers listlessly floated across her computer screen, her otherwise dark room being lit up by the flitting numbers. Without much thought, she unlocked her phone, mentally making a note of how long the data extraction was taking. She had only ever heard of the hacker 707 Extreme from around the web, mainly from other hackers who had been unlucky enough to be targeted by him in one way or another. Thankfully, she never had a run-in with him but she was being paid to take as much information from his computer as she could, so she willingly put herself in the lion's den. It was almost kind of exciting as she watched the bar continue to fill, his files at her fingertips in an instant. With a lazy stretch, she set aside her phone as she sat up before she heard an odd noise emanating from her computer screen. 

As she looked up, she realized there was a yellow skull plastered across the screen and she felt a groan leave her lips as she realized she was officially caught by the other hacker. A message started playing from the skull’s mouth, sending a pang of irritation down her spine as she pulled her headset on over her head so she could listen.

“Hiya! Hey! This thing is on right? Right! You’re not going to steal my information from me that easily! There’s a reason why they say you should never challenge me. But your consolation prize is that you’ve been acknowledged by God 707, so don’t be too sad and rejoice! 707 Extreme, out.” 

“What kind of arrogant message was that…” MC asked herself as she closed out all of her windows before going to the file she set aside for 707’s information specifically. “He did realize that I got a good chunk of information before he caught me, right?” 

She opened a manilla file with the numbers 707 printed across it, taking a deep breath as she looked at the amount of files she had managed to collect. A lot of them had random file names like “sytygt.ZiP” and things of that nature, which only made sense. It’s harder to pinpoint important information if the names are nonsensical. With a smug smile, she opened the first file with the name “Elly.ZiP” a smug smile crossed her lips before her expression quickly turned to irritation.

The screen in front of her displayed a white cat with blue eyes looking at something off in the distance. Her shoulders fell as she quickly clicked out of the file before opening another, this time with the filename “tirtefm.ZiP”. She held her breath as she watched the file load before popping up with… the same exact cat as before! With enough force to break her mouse, she clicked out of that file before clicking on another one further down than the two she had opened before. 

  
“htkalhb.ZiP” she stared at the file, trying not to let her hopes be crushed yet again, the realization sinking in that she could have potentially wasted four days breaking into his firewall for a bunch of lousy photos of cats. Who even keeps cat pictures with all their important information anyways! His skills are closed to unmatched but can someone that’s really this careless be considered one of the best underground hackers to date?

Shaking off her feeling of unease, she opened the file without a second thought, squeezing her eyes shut as she prayed silently that the file would produce something other than a photo of a cat. After a couple strenuous seconds had passed, she slowly opened her eyes, lifting her head very carefully to look at her computer screen. Again, it was the same photo of that ugly cat! 

  
“These are all the same file, just with different names!” She yelled, slamming her head against her desk as the reality that she spent four days hacking this system, just for cat photos and nothing else! “What kind of person is this jerk! Who the hell prepares for an attack like this? There are easily over 200 files here and they are probably all of the same cat!” 

  
MC could feel her rage starting to simmer down to bitter defeat, the shaking of anger had left her body, making way for the exhaustion she had been fighting off to start slowly creeping into her mind. She had been running off of a little less than ten hours of sleep for the past four days, constantly monitoring her computer to make sure he wasn’t coming in for a counterattack. Although she was obviously nowhere near as good as him, she was a lot better when it came to rebuilding her firewall. A yawn escaped her, tears gathering at the corner of her tired eyes. 

Just as she went to click out of the file she had opened, wording at the corner of the file caught her eye. The filename was “htkalhb.ZiP” but as she looked over at the wording, she quickly realized that the filenames were all abbreviations for messages. 

“sytygt.ZiP” = “So you think you got through.”

“tirtefm.ZiP” = “This is really too easy for me.”

“htkalhb.ZiP” = “How to keep a lousy hacker busy.” 

MC slowly stood up , pulling her hood over her head as she allowed herself to fall onto her bed, trying to push the obvious taunts out of her mind. She decided that the best course of action would be to fight against him again when she wasn’t so tired. She pressed her face against her comforter, no longer bothered by the light that came from her computer as she slowly fell asleep, the bitter feeling of defeat weighing down on her heavily. 

-x- 

In the morning, she was woken by the sound of her computer getting notification after notification. She noted the time as she rolled out of bed, going to the bathroom and brushing her teeth before she sat in front of her computer. She glanced at the clock once again now that she was more awake and realized she had only managed to sleep for five hours, but it was better than no sleep at all. 

Humming quietly to herself, she put her headset on and started to shift through the alerts that her computer was giving her. The cat file that she had opened up last night was still on her desktop, causing a heavy sigh to leave her lips as she saved the file to her own desktop, looking at it curiously.

“This cat looks really familiar… I wonder where I’ve seen this before..” She asked herself out loud as she opened up her reverse image searching, pasting the picture into the search bar. 

Within seconds, thousands of results popped up, the most noticeable being an ad for a company called C&R. Curious, she clicked on the ad that displayed the cat, skimming through the ad as she nibbled a half eaten granola bar from the night before, not caring that crumbs were getting all over her desk. At the bottom of the page, there stood a man with the white cat in his arms. He was tall, objectively handsome but not her type, with the white cat nestled firmy into his chest with the title “Co-Director, Jumin Han.” A lightbulb went off in her head as she realized this was the man she had heard all the gay rumors about in the media.

But what was the picture of his cat doing on 707 Extreme’s computer…?

She was snapped awake from her musing as she realized that her system was very much getting hacked, and it looked to be the same sort of pattern that 707 Extreme had used in the past against other hackers. Thankfully she had read all about his methods and recognized it right away. The tension in her shoulders seemed to triple as she began to type, realizing that if 707 gained access to her identity, she may as well have announced her existence to the whole world. This was the only skill she had, and she would be damned if she lost out to some stow away hacker who had nothing better to do than expose people weaker than himself. 

As she read line by line the code he was laying down, she realized that he wasn’t just coding, he was leaving messages for her along the way, in between the lines of text where it was hard for her to read. An irritated scoff escaped her mouth as she began to read the lines of text that he was leaving for her as he continued on. 

**“You didn’t think I would stop at cat pictures, did you?”** **  
** **“You tried to hack my files, so it’s only fair that I get to take a peek at yours, right?”**

**“My heart is racing! What secrets could our man of the hour be hiding!”** **  
** **“They’ll be all mine in just a few minutes.”**

MC could feel her irritation rise at the “man” comment, just because hacking is a male dominated field, that doesn’t mean that every hacker he comes across is a man! Though she couldn’t let herself get swept up in his petty taunting, she had to defend her firewall and stop him from getting into her files, though all of this was a lot easier said than done. 

Just as he had, she left notes for him as well, being careful not to reveal that she was a female because then it would make it even easier for him to find her than before. 

**“I broke through your firewall.”** **  
** **“Just because I missed the target files, it doesn’t make me a bad hacker.”** **  
** **“Nice pictures, by the way.”** **  
** **“I traced them to Jumin Han. Now, who might you be, Extreme?”**

Just as she predicted, she was able to build her wall back up way faster than Extreme was able to take it down, but the stress that came with knowing that one of the best and most unpredictable hackers was after her was almost too much to handle. As she leaned back in her chair, drumming her thumbs against her desk as she realized he was probably done for now, she went back through the codes to try and remember them to the best of her ability before she goes back into his system. 

She made notes to herself about weird things in his patterns, as well as the fact that he probably had a connection to Jumin Han in one way or another. It would be one thing if he had photos of her from the ad, but this seemed to be a personal photo either he or Jumin had taken of the cat. The only image was a casual, candid photo of the cat lounging in what appeared to be a rather luxurious apartment. 

With that thought in mind, she began to scour the web for any possible social media that Han might have had, but in the end, she couldn’t seem to find any social media that belong to the heir of C&R. 

“ _ Interesting. _ ” She thought to herself as she triumphed over what appeared to be a small victory. “And he stopped leaving those annoying messages after I pointed out his connection with Jumin Han…” she mused quietly before she shrugged and got up from her desk, making herself something to eat as she continued to run Extreme’s code in her head. 

-x-

A week had passed since her last run in with the pain in the ass Extreme and she decided that now would probably be a good idea to try and run through his system again while it looked like he was busy. Although, she had a somewhat sinking feeling that this was some sort of trap he was setting for her. She didn’t really like the idea of sitting around until Extreme decided to attack her defenses again, and since it was her turn to level the playing field by taking advantage of his weird schedule, why not?

MC said in her chair, pulling her hair out of her face into a ponytail as she navigated through his firewall, being sure to attack from a completely different point of entry than she had attempted to last time. 

However, as soon as she made it past the first few obstacles, she realized that he had not only rebuilt his firewall, but he had completely re-coded it, nothing was the same as it was when she had attacked it previously. Not only that, but she had never even seen him use this particular coding before in all her time studying his methods. 

Just as before, the stupid yellow skull popped up, but this time she hadn’t even managed to make it through his entire firewall before she was stopped dead in her tracks.

She felt a familiar stinging in her eyes, trying to compose herself quickly as if someone would see her in this state, it was embarrassing to get defeated, it was even more embarrassing to cry over spilt milk. She ran the back of her hand across her eyes, carefully rubbing them before she looked up again. Extreme had left yet another message for her with the yellow skull and she could feel the lump in her throat tighten as she listened to his voice.

“What did I tell you last week! It’s not going to be that easy, right? But I guess I’ll give you props for being persistent if nothing else! I haven’t had this much fun hacking in a long time and it’s all thanks to you. So why don’t we call a truce for now?” 

MC was at her boiling point, hot tears stung her eyes as she hugged her knees to her chest, looking over the message over and over again. The feeling of not being able to do something was probably worse than the feeling of defeat. If she wanted to even think about getting through the new wall he had made, that would take months more of her studying and that’s if she can understand it right off the bat. Whether he meant it to be or not, this felt like a personal call out and a harsh judgement on her skill.

“I will find out who you are, 707 Extreme. There will be no truces until I find out who you are.” she stood up and wiped the tears from her face as she turned her computer off, the silence of her apartment was almost too much to bear. With a dejected sigh and a lack of commitment, she once again laid down in her bed and let the bitter weight of defeat lull her to sleep. 

“This is… kind of fun though…” she thought to herself as she drifted off to sleep.

-x- 

Two weeks had passed since her first encounter with Extreme and he was still as irritating to think about as he had been the first time that stupid yellow skull popped up on her screen. She decided to go to the local bookstore to get books on cybersecurity but also on hacking, because she was stubborn and refused to go down that easily. She had been there plenty of times early in her hacking career so she couldn’t help but feel frustrated that she was all the way back at square one just because of some yellow skull’d jerk.

She made it to the aisle and began to skim the covers of various books, not even sure exactly what it was that Extreme had managed to pull off in his firewall, but she was determined to find out, even if it took her all day. 

She quietly sat down in front of a row of books, finally finding where she needed to be to learn more about coding. A heavy sigh escaped her as she pulled the books off the shelf one by one, reading through them quietly or putting them away if they weren’t what she was looking for. Soon enough, someone else came into the aisle and she moved to the side so she wouldn’t be in the way, mumbling a quick sorry as she looked up, golden eyes meeting hers.

“Don’t worry about moving, you’re not in the way.” was all the redhead said as he took a seat beside her, his fingers gracefully skimming the covers of coding books as well, his headphones emitted a small, upbeat song that seemed to soothe the air between the two of them. 

She could feel her face heat up as he looked back at her, her attention snapping back to the book that she had been reading.    
  
“Why was I staring at him?” she groaned internally as she relaxed against the wall behind her, making sure to keep her eyes trained on the book she had sitting on her lap.

“What are you reading?” the redhead asked as he pulled a few books from the shelves, setting them in a neat stack next to him. 

“Ah.. it’s just about some different types of coding… I’m taking a class but I’ve run into a wall and I can’t seem to get past it.” Technically, she wasn’t lying. There was a wall that she couldn’t get past. It was just that she was teaching herself instead of being in an actual classroom.

  
“I think you’ll find that the less you think about coding, the more it’ll make sense.” MC gave him a confused look which caused a smile to break out on the redhead’s face. “Look, can I see that book for a second?” 

MC said nothing as she passed the book to him and he scooted closer to her as he flipped to a seemingly random page of the book, pointing at a specific paragraph.

“Of course, coding by yourself and learning by trial and error is probably the easiest way to go about learning these things, it’s okay to bend the rules a little, right?” he asked as he handed the book back to her, a heat rising in her cheeks as she realized how close there were.

“I mean… sure, but why are you telling me this?” she asked, looking over his face. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking at all. He seemed nice enough but everything about his aura is off. 

“I’ve come to the same problem for the first time in awhile, so I thought if I helped you, it would help me fix my problem. Sometimes, you have to give advice to get advice!” the triumph on his face made her smile as she turned her attention back to her book.

“You obviously know a lot more than me about coding and everything so I can’t really give you any advice, but I think the universe will send you good omens because of how kind you are.” MC said with a smile as she looked up at the stranger, who seemed to pause before flashing a peace sign. 

“You’re probably right. Though I’m kind of curious, why are you learning how to code? Do you want to learn how to make games or something?” he asked, his tone curious as he closed the book that rested on his knee, his full attention now on her and she wasn’t quite sure how to feel about the interaction. 

He was cute, and for sure her type, but how convenient is it that he came to pick chicks up in the coding section of a bookstore? However, there was a very small chance that he was also a hacker. He looked young enough to be a student as well, maybe just a little older than herself, so there was no real harm that could come from the interaction. 

“I want to develop apps eventually, that would be ideal, but how am I going to do that when I get stuck on one little wall?” she sighed softly as she shook her head, her brown locks skewing her vision of the kind stranger that she was talking to. 

As she pushed her hair away from her face, she saw the redhead messing around with his phone, his attention seemed super focused on something as he typed quickly on his touchscreen. She took the time to admire his features, his sharp jaw, his tall stature, the way he scrunched his nose when he laughed, and how cute he looked with his tongue sticking out while he concentrates. He looked back up at her and turned his phone to where she could see it, holding it in front of her carefully.

“This is an app I created. I can’t show you the contents since my friends are really weird about their privacy, but it’s motivation that if I can do it, you can too!” he said with a small smile, allowing MC time to look over the cover of the app as he held his phone out.

Initially, she didn’t believe what she was seeing, but she quickly focused her eyes, looking over the phone as she did.

“7… 0…. 7?” She asked hesitantly as she looked up at him, his head tilting just slightly as she spoke. The name 707 along with ID and Password were in bold across the screen, they were the only things on the screen. The man she had been talking to… was none other than the jerk she was trying to beat!?

“Yeah, that’s my screen name on the app. I hand made everyone’s profiles so I can change them at will if I want. Though, the programming was a lot of work.” Seven said as he put his phone away, pulling all the books he had taken off the shelf into his arms as he continued to look over the shelves lined with coding books. 

With an exasperated sigh, she stood up, quickly gathering all of the books she wanted into her arms as she attempted to keep the irritation off of her face, but she was sure that she was failing completely, given the confused look on Seven’s face.

“Have a good day, programmer lady! Don’t think too hard on what you want to do next.” he said with an irritating amount of enthusiasm and encouragement.

“I’ll do what I want.” She snapped as she stormed off towards the front of the store to buy the materials that she wanted. What she failed to see as she stormed away from him was the triumphant and somewhat smug smile that had bloomed across Seven’s face.

“Good luck, MC.” he said quietly as he slipped his headphones over his head. 

-x-

“I have been sitting here for five hours, trying to get Seven to stop attacking my firewall and he won’t stop.” MC said aloud for no one in particular to hear. “I would like to go to sleep you actual fucking man child!” 

She rested her head on the edge of her keyboard as she listened to the noise outside her window, contemplating if this was really even worth it anymore. None of the files that she had were worth anything and the only thing he would stand to gain is that he beat someone who is obviously way less experienced than him. She hated to admit it, but her pride was on the line and she couldn’t decide if it was better to let go and fall into a long line of others that had been beaten, or if she should just keep fighting and pulling all nighters so she could satisfy his childish nature. 

She lifted her head once more, her eyes lightly scanning over the code that was crawling across her screen sleepily, much like she was. As her eyes scanned, she noticed he was leaving notes for her to find once again in between the lines of codes he was leaving in her firewall. 

**“So it wasn’t a fluke! You’re really fast at rebuilding your firewall lololol.”**

_ “How long can you keep this us though?” _

“By the way, did you finish the books you got from the store, or have I been keeping you occupied~?” 

Her temper flared again but to no avail, she knew that the more she fed into this game, the longer she would be forced to sit in her chair, playing right into his hands. Something about how easily he was able to tear down people's hard work annoyed her, but she couldn’t complain because she did the exact same thing for work on a smaller scale. 

Although she was reluctant to do it, she was just tired of constantly trying to improve against someone who knew way more than she did. She would be happy to never see the number 707 ever put together again, let alone the word Extreme, that word was officially banned from her personal vocabulary as well as everyone that was within a 50 mile radius. Her fingers flew across the keys, leaving a note of her own before she turned off the monitor and the tower to her PC before she opted for getting in the shower. She had spent way too much time that night hunched over her keyboard and she knew that a long shower was in order for her aching muscles (and bruised ego).

The last message she sent to Extreme read:

**“I surrender. Do what you want, Luciel. ”**

It was hard to find out who he was, the jerk really likes to keep himself hidden. After finding out he had some sort of connection to Jumin Han, it was only natural to research every investment or deal that Jumin Han had been involved with. After she got a visual of Seven in the bookstore, she knew who she was looking for so it wasn’t like she was searching blindly in the dark for someone she didn’t know. Shortly after seeing him, she found news clippings of an organization under the name RFA- Rika’s Fundraising Association. Although he only appeared in one photo, many years ago, the only thing they disclosed about him under the photograph was the name “Luciel” and he was standing next to a small blonde boy named “Yoosung”. 

She let out a sigh as she sunk into the water, trying to rid her mind of the smug redhead, but she was failing miserably.

-x- 

It had been one full month since she had last seen or heard from Seven and she would be lying if she said things had been boring since then. None of the jobs she took on at work were nearly as complex or interesting as him and she was almost regretting calling a truce with him as she finished her second and final assignment for the day. Everyone that she targeted was usually just people who owed money, a cheating husband or two, things of that nature but nothing had caught her attention and earned her (though terrified) respect. 

Her fingers travelled silently over the page she was reading, still trying to understand the code she had seen weeks before in Seven’s firewall. 

Was she nearing obsession? Probably.   
Was she going to get down to the bottom of this? Probably not.

Did she have even a shred of pride left? No. That had been stripped away when Luciel beat her like she was a rookie hacker who could barely comprehend what C++ was. 

She was in a familiar setting, books surrounding her as she sat on the floor by the coding section of the bookstore that she had avoided since her last encounter with Seven, but she had no choice but to come here because they could order books for her that she would otherwise have no chance of getting. A small sigh escaped her as she rubbed her eyes, hard enough to see little lights on her eyelids but not hard enough to make herself go blind, unfortunately. 

As she opened her eyes, refocusing them on the book in front of her, she saw a familiar pair of shoes out of the corner of her eye. Her shoulders slumped in defeat but she refused to look up or even acknowledge his existence as she sat there, face in her book with no sign of life other than her breathing. 

It was obvious he was looking at her, or at least was looking at the book that she was looking at because his shoes were facing her and there was a slight shadow cast on her book, indicating that he was more than likely leaning over her like a jackass to try and get her attention.

“I don’t even know why you bother to come here when it’s obvious you don’t need the reference material. Just go pick what you need and go.” MC snapped, not looking up from her book as she spoke, but was very obviously no longer reading the words and diagrams that were spread before her on the page.

“So, surrender, huh?” Seven asked as he kneeled down next to her, his golden eyes suddenly coming into view of her peripheral vision. She groaned internally as she cursed herself for being somewhat attracted to such a snide, egotistical jerk.

“So, Luciel, huh?” she said as she snapped her book closed, turning to face him. His face contorted in surprise before slipping back into his easy, carefree smile. 

“My heart is almost beating out of my chest, hearing you say my name. Don’t you think you’re moving a little too fast by calling me by my first name?” he teased as he rested his chin in his open palm, his other hand mindlessly wrapping his finger in and out of the cord that hung from his headphones. 

“Apparently I moved too fast for you when I was rebuilding my firewall after you decided to come in and hack it. So no, I think going faster than normal is just how I like it. Thanks for asking though.” MC said turning her body to face him, their eyes met just as Luciel broke into a laugh, causing a smile to bloom across her face as she watched the man in front of her laugh until he finally calmed down enough to speak.

“You’re really funny, I can’t remember the last time I actually liked another hacker that I met. Normally, it’s just annoying to get them to go away but there is definitely something different about you.” Luciel said with a satisfied smile as he gave her a thumbs up, looking pleased with himself as he did so.

“I don’t need your praise old man.” MC retorted, a somewhat carefree feeling falling over her as she matched Luciel’s thumbs up with her own. “I’m still not anywhere near as good as you are, but I can keep trying to improve and maybe one day I’ll surprise you.” 

“I will always accept a challenge from you, MC.” Luciel said as he stood up, offering her a hand which she took as she rose to her feet. 

She wasn’t sure if it was from the way Luciel was looking at her or if it was because she had been sitting for too long but she felt as though she was caught in a trance. She didn’t let go of his hand as she stood up, their eyes locking for what felt like hours as she held her coding book close to her chest. Carefully, Luciel removed his hand from her own and he shoved his hands in his pockets, as if he needed a physical barrier to stop himself from touching her again.

  
He began to walk off and a small panic came over her as she moved without thinking, grabbing the back of his jacket which caused him to stop walking. He glanced over his shoulder, giving her a small smile as he began to speak, not looking put off at all by her sudden desperate behavior.

“Oh, I didn’t know you wanted to fight me physically. I mean, I don’t really like fighting at all, so maybe we could just give each other a high five and talk it out?” Luciel joked as he turned around once again to face her and she swore she could see the faintest blush on his cheeks. However, that could also be wishful thinking that his face was as red as hers definitely was, the realization sinking in that she just chased after him and clung to his coat like a child was absolutely mortifying. 

“Luciel, I mean- extreme or, maybe you like to be called Seven? I don’t really know-” she was cut off by Luciel laughing before he composed himself again, fixing his glasses as he looked down at her.

“Seven is fine, your stress is making me stress out. I promise I’m easy to get along with as long as you don’t try to hack my firewalls and funnel out all my information.” Seven finished, looking as smug as ever which helped to snap MC out of it somewhat as she met his golden eyes.

“I’ll buy you food if you tell me how to be a better hacker. I still have a lot to learn but I think if I studied under you, I could learn a lot in a shorter time instead of reading books all day that don’t make any sense in practice.” she rushed out all at once, her face turning red as she looked down and let go of his jacket.

“Uhh.. I can’t have a pupil.” Seven said with a shrug as he ruffled her hair, offering her his hand once more. “But I can point out every single mistake you made and tell you how you can solidify the skills you have now. Deal?” 

MC hesitated for a second, her eyes darting from his gentle hand to his face before she carefully took his hand again. 

  
“Deal.” she gave his hand a small shake as she smiled up at him, the feeling of resentment and irritation that she had felt towards him began to slowly dissipate, like the snow when spring arrives. That’s what being around him felt like, the spring rolling in quickly to melt away all the cold and bitterness of winter.

Seven didn’t let go of her hand as he began to walk out with her, her grip tightening a bit as she caught up to him, the two of them suddenly caught up in conversation on where they should eat and how much information she could get out of Seven that would be an acceptable amount for just lunch. 

Her heart felt a little lighter as she laced their fingers together, meeting no resistance from Seven, only a soft, reassuring squeeze. 


End file.
